• 17 •

S E V E N T E E N

3 days later

A L E X A

"I'm worried. It's been days and they're not back yet." I paced back and forth.

"Maybe it's a process." Rosita said.

"No, it shouldn't take this long." Carl shook his head.

"You never know. They probably just wanted more time to see who they are." She was confident. She was one of our good fighters, I don't know why she stayed back.

We were currently outside, just walking around, making sure everything was going good.

Seeing my people with the alexandrians still was crazy. They were walking around like normal, laughing and just talking.

We had walked past a few of my people, I flashed them a smile, a genuine one. I was happy, we were all getting along considering the circumstances.

Carl walked with an assault rifle in hand, I walked with an ak-47 in mine. Rosita walked with her arms folded. She was unarmed, just waiting to hear the trucks come back.

"Do you think they got enough information?" Carl nudged me lightly in the upper arm.

"I sure hope so." I breathed in deeply. "Guys, listen. I think they're back. Rosita hushed us.

In the distance we could hear the trucks."Come on!" I bumped Carl lightly and took off towards the gate.

I saw the gates open before I got there so I ran faster. As I got there, the trucks were still pulling in.

I stood back until they were all parked in place. Dad and rick had hopped out of a truck together, letting others out of the back.

"Hi princess!" Dad smiled as he saw me."What the hell is wrong with you? You scared the shit out of me." I put my gun down, jogged towards him, embracing him tightly.

"We got a lot of information." Dad squeezed me."They're powerful. More powerful than they thought... but nothing we can't beat. They're armed heavily but so are we." Rick said as his eyes noticed Carl.

"Dad!" Carl smiled, running to his dad and hugging him. Rick grinned, kissing Carl's head

"It took you three days to just learn that?" I nuzzled into his chest. I missed him a lot.

"Yes because we saw how they run things in their sanctuary. It's just barely a sanctuary. It's got walls around a field and that's it. They're new. They're making a plan to raid us... they're fucking with the wrong people." Dad informed me.

"You still could've came back. You scared the hell out of me." I pulled away from the hug."Well I'm back and well. No one died, everyone is here." Thats always good news.

I felt happy. I hadn't felt like this in awhile. I was with my dad and my boyfriend. Both of which I love very much.

Having them both getting along so well made my heart have hope again.

"We'll discuss plans later tonight." Rick said after Carl had let go of him.

"Everyone get cleaned up and we'll talk later." Dad instructed our people.

"You shouldn't leave this lying around." Carl brought my gun to me."Shit, sorry. I got distracted." I apologized, slinging the gun over my shoulder.

"Be more careful, dummy." Carl chuckled, playfully grabbing my hand and pulling me towards him.

I smiled widely, our faces inches apart."I absolutely adore you." He placed his hands on my cheeks, cradling them as I said this.

"Like I said the other day. You are and always be my dream, baby. I love you." His lips pecked my forehead.

"And I love you." I purred, propping up onto my tiptoes, connecting our lips for a few seconds.

"I'm gonna go and take a shower, we move back to the sanctuary after tonight but we'll come back in a few days and get everything started up." Dad informed me.

"Okay... can Carl come?" It was a long shot question but I wanted him to come.

Dad gave me a look, his brow raised. Rick must've heard what I asked because his attention turned to us quickly.

Carl looked at rick, waiting for an answer.

"If we're going to work together it has to be a must we get comfortable in all safe houses." I spoke up, looking at rick, hoping he would agree.

Ricks eyes moved to my dads, his look was a look of thinking if he could trust Dad.

"Well if this place goes down you have to be familiar with mine. Let the boy come." Dad put his hand on Carl's shoulder.

"If you try to kill my son again, negan I swear to god I'll murder you." Rick warned."Ouch, ouch, we're a team now, rick. Hell, Carl is my favorite anyway." Dad gently shook Carl's shoulder with his hand.

Rick breathed in heavily and his eyes glanced over at me.

"Alright then. Fine, go ahead." Rick nodded. I grinned widely.

"Thank you rick." My arms wrapped around Carl, kissing his cheek.

H O U R S L A T E R

"I would've never guessed your room would be all decorated." Carl looked around."Yeah, my dad made my room an actual teenage girls room. When we first arrived here he replaced the door with a normal door, he made sure everything seemed normal to me. This is the one place I could go and just pretend." I explained to him.

"That's sweet." Carl admired around my room.

"Little Christmas tree." Carl smiled, touching my artificial, tiny Christmas tree.

"Yeah... it's around Christmas. It was always my favorite holiday." I beamed, standing behind him.

"Oh yeah. Maybe we all can celebrate together. Have a little get together. All of us as a family." Carl turned around, facing me, putting his hands on my shoulders.

"That would be wonderful." I admitted, my eyes looking dearly into his.

"We could all get together, get to all spend time together without having to worry about a damn thing." He proceeded to fantasize about it.

"I would love that. That would be so lovely, wouldn't it be?" That would be amazing. All of us together for my favorite holiday.

But the world wasn't like that anymore. There was no more Christmas. There was no more celebrating together.

"I'm more preparing for the war that will probably go down." I admitted with a heavy sigh.

"That group? You heard my dad, we can take them-"

"Rick is sometimes wrong, Carl. Even if we can take them, they're not going down without a fight." I folded my arms.

"I know... but we'll be ready. We won't lose. We never do." Carl could tell I didn't have a good feeling about this fight.

"They're powerful. I don't want to lose you or my dad, I won't be able to handle it. They have the chance to take you away from me. I can't have that." I shook my head.

"You won't lose either of us. We'll be right next to you as always." Carl's hands cradled my cheeks.

"How can you be so sure?" I whispered."I'm not. There's of course always that at risk. People are gonna die. My dad's gonna die. I'm gonna die.... there's no way you can ever be ready for it." ):

He was right."I just will keep fighting and if I die... well, as long as I die fighting with you or for you, I'll die happy." Carl mumbled.

He leaned his head down, connecting his lips with mine gently. It was such a love filled, passionate kiss. My fingers curled around his wrists, kissing back with more love.

I loved Carl so much. It was crazy that he still loved me considering everything I put him through. I lied to him, manipulated him, almost had him killed like 4 times.

I loved this boy and I would do anything to protect him.

Our lips worked against each other softly.

Of course, this lovely moment was completely interrupted when my dad had opened my bedroom door.

"Hey, Alexa, I'm back- holy shit- fuck- sorry." I heard. I quickly pulled away from Carl and turned my head to my door.

"If I didn't see it, it didn't happen." Dad closed his eyes. This made me giggle a little.

"Dad it's fine, it's not like we were ripping each other's clothes off." If that were the case, Carl would be dead. Dad would've been so angry.

"I was just um- telling you that I'm back." Dad opened his eyes."I see that." I nodded, giving him a quick hug.

"You better keep your hands off of my daughter or I'm chopping them off and feeding them to walkers, you hear me, boy?" Dad pointed at Carl, holding me close to him.

"Noted. Got it." Carl raised his hands in defense.

"Hush, it's fine." I told Dad.

"Yeah. Sure." Dad squinted his eyes. I chuckled, letting go of him.

"Dinner will be ready in an hour, baby doll." Dad kissed my forehead.

"Okay. I'll see you then." I gave him a wide grin. He smiled back and backed away from my room before leaving. I just closed my door and turned attention all back to Carl.

"You didn't actually take the threat as a threat, right?" I cocked a brow.

"Of course not." Carl snickered.

"Good. He's just-"

"Looking our for his baby. Yes, I know. I would've been the same way if I had a daughter." Carl sat down on my bed.

"I want a family, but if none of this is over before I'm older... I'm not having a baby. I'm not letting them grow up in this world." I shook my head, walking towards Carl and stopped in front of him.

"It will be better. You and I will start a family... we'll get married and be happy with everyone. Everything will be perfect." He placed his hands on my hips. My hands rested among his shoulders, my eyes beaming down on him.

A small smile came to my face."We'll be a family. More so than now. We'll have our own house, have the perfect perfect life." I rubbed his shoulders gently. Carl grinned widely and pulled me down onto the bed.

I giggled, wrapping my arms around his neck.

"You'll be my wife one day. I promise you that." He looked down at me, that big smile still on his lips. I loved when he smiled, it made me happy.

It gave me a little bit of hope.

Seeing that smile just gave me the feeling that maybe everything will be okay.

My hands cradled his cheeks.

"You'll be my husband. We'll have babies running around and having fun. We'll be happy."

Awwww I honestly love them together so much. They're both like broken as fuck but they help each other. They need each other